Skiing is and long has been a popular sport, of which the two most familiar and popular forms are cross country skiing and downhill skiing, wherein cross country skiing generally involves travel on specially laid out trails across relatively level terrain with a walking or striding motion and with any travel up and down slopes being limited to relatively gentle slopes. In contrast, down-hill skiing is essentially specialized, as the name implies, to gravity powered travel down slopes of varying degrees of steepness.
As is well known, the equipment used in the two forms of the sport reflect these basic differences between these forms of skiing and the differences between the equipment used in each effectively means that the equipment for one form of skiing cannot be used in the other. For example, downhill boots and bindings are designed solely to transport the skier down a relatively steep slope. For this reason, downhill boots and bindings are designed to rigidly secure the boot and the user's foot in one position relative to the ski so that the ski essentially becomes an extension of the wearer's foot, and to resist very high lateral forces in doing so. For this reason, in turn, the boot is a rigid structure that allows almost no motion of the wearer's foot or leg relative to the boot and the binding rigidly secures the boot to the ski so as to allow no motion between the boot and the wearer's foot and the ski.
It is therefore apparent that downhill boots and bindings are completely unsuitable for cross country skiing because they lock the wearer's foot into a position flat to the ski and do not allow the foot and leg motions necessary for the desired walking or striding motion. Downhill skis and bindings are in fact unsuited for moving any significant distance on even a level surface, and are even less suited for traveling any distance on any form of uphill slope, such as often encountered in cross country skiing, because the binding tends to force the wearer into a backward tilted stance.
In contrast to downhill boots and bindings, cross country boots and bindings must be and are designed to allow the wearer to move with a relatively normal walking or striding motion. For this reason, a cross country ski boot is generally shoe-like and engages the cross country ski binding by means of a toe catch/pivot mechanism that includes a horizontal, cross-ski pin in the ski binding. This mechanism secures the boot to the ski at the toe of the boot while allowing the heel to rise and fall in a vertical arc centered at the toe of the boot and aligned with the ski, thereby allowing the user's foot to generally move, relative to the ski, in a normal striding or walking motion.
In a cross country binding, however, the only significant connection between the boot and the ski is the toe catch/pivot mechanism and, for this reason, the boot and binding often include a ridge and groove arrangement that engage when the boot is flat to the ski to thereby provide some degree of support against lateral forces. Despite this additional support, however, cross country skis and bindings are generally unsuitable for any significant degree of downhill skiing because the rib and groove readily disengage with any vertical force on or motion of the heel and the lateral support provided is generally inadequate to resist the lateral forces encountered in down-hill skiing. Also, like downhill skis and bindings, cross country skis have very limited uphill capabilities because the sole fixed connection between the ski and the wearer is the toe hinge, so that when the skier is traveling up a slope the binding allows the tip of the ski to freely rise relative to the wearer's foot so that the wearer is essentially supporting their entire weight on their toes.
The inherent limitations of downhill and conventional cross country bindings present significant problems for skiers who wish to engage in a third type of skiing generally referred to generally as “back country” skiing. Back country skiing is essentially cross country skiing extended to areas off of groomed trails and into areas presenting significant uphill and downhill slopes. Back country ski equipment must therefore be efficient at the basic striding or walking modes of cross country skiing, and must also provide significant capabilities for both downhill skiing and uphill travel.
It should be noted that there have been some previous attempts to provide either a form of ski boot and binding or a method of skiing that is at least somewhat usable in both cross country and downhill skiing. For example, there is a form of cross country skiing referred to as “Telemark” skiing wherein a cross country binding is used in downhill skiing which requires that the skier position the skis with one ski positioned ahead of or behind the other when traveling downhill and that the skier manage turns by specific and limited methods for shifting the skier's weight and the positions of the skis. While the “Telemark” method is occasionally used by cross country skiers when faced with a steeper than usual downhill slope, the method is relatively unpopular among downhill skiers because the specific maneuvers with the skis required of this form of skiing and the inherent limitations of the cross country bindings, both of which severely limit the maneuvers that can be performed compared to downhill skis. In addition, Telemark skiing has characteristics and methods that are explicitly different from both cross country skiing and downhill skiing and is thereby an additional form of skiing that must be learned and practiced in its own right.
Another attempted solutions of the prior art include various forms of hybrid bindings, a typical example of which is the Freeride binding offered by Diamir products of Switzerland. The Freeride binding is essentially a conventional downhill binding that is split into a toe part and a heel part wherein the toe part is hinged to the ski in the manner of a cross country binding and the heel part can be disengaged from the ski boot to allow the heel to rotate upward and downward around the toe hinge in the manner of a cross country binding. This form of hybrid binding is therefore essentially a downhill binding that can be adjusted to provide some of the characteristics of a cross country ski, but still does not provide a satisfactory solution to the above discussed problems. For example, because this is essentially a modified downhill binding and is primarily intended for downhill travel, the binding uses the conventional rigid downhill boot, which does not allow the desired motion of the ankle joint desired for a comfortable walking or striding motion. In addition, and again because the sole connection between the wearer and the ski when traveling in cross country mode is the toe hinge, the wearer is still forced to travel on their toes when going up a slope, as in the case of cross country skis. Also, the wearer is required to stop and engage or disengage the heel mechanism for each change in the slope.
The present invention as described herein below provides solutions to these and other problems of the prior art.